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Sandra Spieker (Ringo)
Steve,
Nice AC/DC song! I like it too! That one would get you on down the road for sure. When I hear it I think of the movie, Battleship, great military sci-fi, alien flick. They kick the attack on the aliens in gear with that music! Thrilling.
The day after you leave on vacation, the 20th of August, will be our 42nd wedding anniversary. Yep, 42 years ago, we were in Las Vegas at the Little Chapel of the West getting married. I can't believe all that time has gone by, it seems in the blink of an eye. All forty two years, and then some have been wonderful. I could not ask for a better friend, partner and love of my life that Danny has been.
We went to Gordon Texas this morning, to visit the New Gordon Cemetary. Danny's mother passed away 25 years ago today and Danny wanted to pay his respects to her. Most of the Ringo family is buried there. Danny's father, mother, grandfather, great grandfather and numerous cousins and relatives. We left early to escape the afternoon heat (it is currenlty 105 outside). When we got back, mother asked me if we saw and talked with anyone. I looked at her and explained that the only living folks there were me, Danny and Aaron (mother is not awake before 9 am - we left at 7:30 and were back by 9:30 am). She assumed the whole town would show up and greet us, I guess. The questions that 94 year olds come up with are interesting. And speaking of relatives:
Danny's relatives came to America in the 1600's. The first one off the boat (and was buried at sea) was Phillip Jansen Ringo. His children and grandchildred founded and lived in Ringoes New Jersey.
There was a tavern in the town that was owned and operated by a Ringo (either John or Philip - a grandson). It was the site of political meetings during the Revolutionary War. Some links for a tidbit of interesting history and information.
Revolutionary War New Jersey
Historic Taverns - an excerpt below from the link:
The ancient Ringo’s Tavern was not the first in the area, but it is arguably the best known of Hunterdon’s long gone hostelries. Decades before the Revolutionary War, John Ringo (some say it was Philip) built a small log tavern located where two main Indian trails crossed in the Amwell Valley wilderness, today’s Old York Road and Route 579. The isolated building, with its wraparound porch, soon saw enough travelers to gain notoriety as “Ringo’s Tavern” and a place on New Jersey’s earliest maps. With a signboard bearing a portrait of General Washington, Justices and Freeholders frequently gathered there to discuss important civil affairs. In 1730, Philip Ringo became the first of that family to obtain a tavern license; and, for seventy years the Ringo family kept the establishment open. Even as a small hamlet, Ringoes, as it is called today, began to grow around it.
In 1766, as anti-British sentiments began to brew and fester, the Sons of Liberty met at the tavern and, “at Risque of our Lives and Fortunes” drew up an official statement expressing their strong objections to policies of the Crown. As feelings intensified, the tavern witnessed the formation of a local militia and the collection and storage of supplies intended for armed resistance to the Crown’s forces, should it come to that. Once the Revolution began in earnest, both Continental and British troops occasionally passed by Ringo’s tavern. At the end of the war, in 1783, a “monster celebration” took place there for the signing of the peace treaty.
Afterward, the tavern served as a polling station, judicial courtroom, post office, and even a place where stud horses bred mares. In 1838, after a long succession of owners and proprietors, the place shut down coincidentally with the opening of a new tavern nearby. After sheltering only tramps and hoboes for the next two years, the building burned to the ground in 1840.
Interesting to note that the first few generations of Ringoes in New Jersey were married to women with Dutch first names. My family, as some of you know, are all from Holland. Both of my parents were born there and were their parents too. I must travel there some day. Bucket list item.
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